Monday, July 28, 2008

This new journey I am on has become more than just green and organic. It is also about experiencing the abundance of things you can do with the Internet at your fingertips. With the help of a book called Clear Blogging, by Bob Walsh, I have learned more in 2 months about the business and art of blogging than I thought possible. I have managed to edit HTML code (with great trepidation), set up accounts with all kinds of techie websites that do stuff for bloggers (if you're interested, check out Technorati), configured comments tracking for the blog, set up RSS feeds (I'll explain below), embedded videos and much more. I didn't even know most of this stuff existed until 2 months ago. Amazing! The web is so vast that the more I search, the more I find out that there is to search. I don't know how to describe it except to to say that the resources on the web are unbelievably unlimited.

Enough babbling; let's get on with instructions for subscribing. Here goes:

First you need an RSS "Reader". RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it is really simple. You'll find the orange RSS reader icon just under my profile in the right sidebar of my blog. It looks just like the one at the top left of this post, but that one is just a "picuture". The icon under my profile says "Subscribe to my feed in a Reader". If you don't already have a "Reader" on your computer, then go to step 2. If you DO have a reader, you already know what to do. Click and add this blog.

Before you download a reader, you'll want a free e-mail account for the subscription. Trust me; it is better than sending it all to your regular e-mail. If you don't already have a Gmail (free e-mail) account, sign up for one. Just go to Google.com and click on Gmail at the top. (Note: Other free e-mail services offer free "readers", but I can't help you with theirs--sorry) It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be glad to get your subscription coming to a separate e-mail, especially when you start subscribing to other blogs and news sites. When you can hand-pick the topics you want to hear about and have the headlines come to your free e-mail, it is a wonderful way to screen your mail and news stories.

If you DO have Gmail, then sign into your Gmail account and click the reader link at the top. Now sign out or minimize Google and return to Organic Journey Online.Click the Orange button just below my profile. It says Subscribe to my Feed in a Reader.

On the right, click the light yellow button that says Subscribe with Google.

Next, and also on the right, click the blue button that says Add to Google Reader.

Congratulations! You are now a subscriber of Organic Journey Online. Our post headlines and a few additional lines will appear there each time I post (currently 4 days per week Tuesdays-Fridays). If the headline sounds interesting, just click and it will expand or take you to the blog to read more. It's that easy. Enjoy, and please comment below this post with the purple comment button if you have questions or would like to tell me anything about this harrowing 10-minute experience. I'd like to know if you found these instructions helpful, and what suggestions you might have for next time.

FYI-- Becoming a subscriber will help get my blog noticed by the blogosphere (This the world of blogs on the Internet): search engines, bloggers, Technorati and the like. Thank you in advance for helping me to grow. I hope you, in turn, enjoy and learn.